Product Description

Whether they're looking at their phone, tablet, or gaming device, kids seem more glued to a screen than engaged with people. How can you wean your children from dependence on digital devices? In Growing Up Social, Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane share five skills to help you give youngsters a relational edge in a screen-driven world. They are:

Publisher's Description

Is technology drawing your family together or driving it apart?

In this digital age, children are spending more and more time interacting with a screen and less time playing outside, reading a book, or interacting with a parent. While technology can benefit us, it can also erode a sense of togetherness and hinder a childs emotional and social development.

In Growing Up Social, Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane will empower you with the tools you need to make positive changes . . . starting today. Through stories, wit, and wisdom, youll discover how to take back your home from an overdependence on screens. Plus, youll learn to teach the five A+ skills that every child needs to master: affection, appreciation, anger management, apology, and attention.

Learn how to:

Replace mindless screen time with meaningful family time

Establish simple boundaries that make a huge difference

Discover what's working for families that have become screen savvy

Equip your child to be relationally rich in a digital world

Learn healthy ways to occupy your child while you get things done

Now is the time to equip your child with a healthy involvement with screens and an even healthier involvement with others.

Author Bio

GARY CHAPMAN--author, speaker, counselor--has a passion for people and for helping them form lasting relationships. He is the #1 bestselling author of The 5 Love Languages series and director of Marriage and Family Life Consultants, Inc. Gary travels the world presenting seminars, and his radio programs air on more than 400 stations. For more information visit his website at www.5lovelanguages.com.

ARLENE PELLICANE is a speaker and co-author of Growing Up Social: Raising Relational Kids in a Screen-Driven World (with Dr. Gary Chapman). Arlene's other books include 31 Days to Becoming a Happy Mom and 31 Days to a Happy Husband. She has been a featured guest on the Today Show, Fox & Friends, Focus on the Family, FamilyLife Today, The 700 Club, and Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah. Before becoming a stay-at-home mom, Arlene worked as the Associate Producer for Turning Point Television with Dr. David Jeremiah. Arlene earned her BA from Biola University and her Masters in Journalism from Regent University. She lives in San Diego with her husband James and their three children. To learn more and for free family resources such as a monthly Happy Home podcast, visit www.ArlenePellicane.com.

Editorial Reviews

"I really enjoyed reading this book. As a teacher, this has been a topic I have been constantly talking about. The effects of technology are clearly obvious in our youth and in our families and their interactions. I highly recommend this book to parents and teachers. I think this is a perfect book for a parenting class. Rating 4 out of 5 stars."

Reviewed by Susana Martin, Net Galley, June 6, 2014

"Let me start this review by saying that I was attracted to read this book by its cover and title. The cover is very intriguing and thought provoking. For me its a perfect depiction of what is happening to kids who are "growing up" social. As a private tutor I had been questioning the effects of growing up social on my students. As soon as I saw the title of this book I picked it up thankfully it gave me all the answers I needed. And whats best of all, it gave me reassurance that my beliefs regarding screen time for children arent wrong.

The writing is straight to the point. The concepts are clearly explained. There are many practical and doable examples on how to apply the suggestions the authors make. More about the writing on the the full review on my blog.

Growing up social does not emphasize only on the negative effects screen time has on our kids: slow language development, aggressive behavior, frustration, negative thoughts, weak interpersonal relationships, lack of virtues, feeling of entitlement, short attention span, lack of emotional connections, rebellion toward authority, etc. It is not a book to attack technology. The authors recognize that with a purpose and a plan, screen time can be a wonderful way to bring families closer.

The important lesson to learn is that there has to be balance, limits, and boundaries for screen time enforced by parents in order to raise healthy and productive human beings. These parameters dont have to be imposed or forced on children. They are set in a way that children learn to make decisions and learn to live within these boundaries.

Growing up social is an empowering book for parents, an eye opener for those who are feeling lost or despaired in their mission. It fills you with hope and reminds you that it is never too late to make positive changes that will influence your children for the rest of their lives. It positively recharges you and makes you remember that "you are the parent at the wheel who decides the direction of your family."

Growing up social is not only for parents or single parents, but also a great resource for grandparents, families, teachers, nannies, tutors, counselors, and anyone who is in constant contact with children and has some responsibility in their upbringing can greatly benefit from reading this book. I am very selective as to which books get 5 stars in my book shelf. I highly recommend reading this book."

As a school technologist in a private school, I have seen more and more children come into my classroom with knowledge of social media already ingrained in them from their home environment as well as the many nuances from the advertisements.

Even though they have the skills to be tech-savvy, they aren't aware of the potential dangers that social media may present themselves in a variety of ways.

That's where this book comes in handy. Growing up Social, Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane will empower you with the tools you need to make positive changes . . . starting today. Through stories, wit, and wisdom, youll discover how to take back your home from an overdependence on screens. Plus, youll learn to teach the five A+ skills that every child needs to master: affection, appreciation, anger management, apology, and attention.

Learn how to:

Replace mindless screen time with meaningful family time

Establish simple boundaries that make a huge difference

Discover what's working for families that have become screen savvy

Equip your child to be relationally rich in a digital world

Learn healthy ways to occupy your child while you get things done

Now is the time to equip your child with a healthy involvement with screens and an even healthier involvement with others.

"Mom, can I play the X-box?" "Mom, can I borrow your phone?" "Mom, can I play my tablet?"

THE BATTLE OVER SCREEN TIME IS REAL AND ISN'T GOING AWAY!

Every parent wants their child to choose relationships over screens. I saw this book and just knew it had to offer me some words of wisdom for this daily battle in my own home.

Gary Chapman and Arelene Pellicane did an excellent job in showing their readers how screen time affects children. As a homeschooling mom, I see it firsthand and am able to limit the time. However, I cannot imagine having 20 kids enter my classroom knowing they have all been on some form of media before they walked into school! I suspected it altered behavior and based on research, it does.

Technology is a great thing, and the authors even discuss that aspect. However, they are not oblivious to the fact that there are kids who would rather walk around a zoo while playing a game on a phone instead of interacting with the animals and their parents. They see the lack of conversation in restaurants.

The authors also know it didn't start with the kids. Oftentimes, parents are just as addicted as the kids. How many moments are we missing out on? We can disguise our addiction as "work that has to be done," but we are setting a precedent for our kids.

The facts were clearly stated throughout the pages of this book without being condescending. I never felt like I was ready to shut the book and walk away. If anything, I was encouraged. I was encouraged to know I wasn't alone in this struggle. I was encouraged to know there were others just like me!

The book is full of ideas of how to limit screen time and encourage those real-life relationships. I appreciated their ideas so that I can try them and adapt them to best fit our family.

Growing Up Social is a book that will be read by many as parents try to navigate through the waters of appropriate amounts of screen time for their children.

In Growing Up Social: raising relational kids in a screen-driven world, Gary Chapman and Arlene Pellicane incorporate scientific research and stories to show readers how technology can affect childrens ability to relate to those around them.

Chapman and Pellicane open the book with a convincing background of research and statistics. After this introduction, they write about the attributes of a well-rounded relational child. Though most readers probably associate increased screen time with a decrease in the skill of attention, Chapman and Pellicane do an excellent job of showing how screen time can also affect the skills of affection, appreciation, anger management, and apology.

Though they stress that Growing Up Social is not an anti-technology book, Chapman and Pellicane provide suggestions, ideas, and personal examples of how to decrease screen time and increase relationship building. They also recognize the temptation of the electronic babysitter, the additional challenge for single parents, and the importance of adults evaluating their own screen time.

I highly recommend Growing Up Social to all parents, adults involved in children or youth ministry, and others interested in the effects of social media and technology. I do not have children yet, but Growing Up Social challenged me to reconsider the technology choices I make. My husband and I are already making some adjustments to our screen time, and I look forward to incorporating more of the thoughts in Growing Up Social into our lives!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Reading this book was a bit unnerving for me at the beginning, because although I know my children spend way to much time in front of the screen and although I desperately want to change that, the fact remains that for undisclosed reasons, that is not so easy to do.

This is not an anti-technology book. As Dr Chapman said, technology is here to stay, but it is not all bad either. This book is a guide, a book of facts, and statistics about how the use of technology affects our children and what we can do about that. Technology as everything else in our lives has its place, but needs to be monitored and limited especially in the lives of our children.

Dr Chapman and Arlene give lots of help with that. They also address five A+ areas in our children's lives that need to be mastered - Affection, Appreciation, Anger management, Apologizing, and Attention. The focus of this book is that social development is not learned through technology, social media, gaming, etc... Instead it is learned through family time, activities with people, doing things together. There are lots of tips for incorporating those things into our lives.

There may be some repetitive information in this book, as well as facts you hear on the media, but coupled with God's will for our lives as Christians and good sound advice, this book is a great asset to have. Incorporating change is not always easy, but sometimes it is necessary if we want to develop truly social adults. For me, it was certainly worth the read.

A big thanks to Moody for sharing this book with me in exchange for my review.

I usually have a hard time reading non-fiction as I struggle with visualizing the words in my mind as I would if reading a fictional story. However, Growing Up Social really held my interest and challenged me with the tips given as well as the numerous stories/examples (that really helped me stay engaged).

There were a few places that I did feel it was repetitive, but the information itself was very good concerning everything about screen time (effects of too much/little, security, authority, etc.). I really appreciated that Gary and Arlene wrote in a manner that did not come across as condescending, but encouraged readers that its never too late to take back the castle.

I highly recommend this to parents whether the kids in your home are toddlers, grown, or moved out because there are very powerful messages of not letting screens dominate our/their world. Plus there is eye-opening information throughout this book that can be for parents too and will serve as a catalyst for change in the home.

*(I received this novel from Flyby Promotions in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.)*